[Ads-l] Dialog: "Do You Think In Words or Pictures" "I Think In Thoughts"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The adroit reply in the subject line has been attributed to prominent
English economist John Maynard Keynes.

I was reminded of this classic epistemological question by recent
advancements in the field of artificial intelligence. The latest
generation of systems is multi-modal which means they can use text,
images, and video as input and output.

Here is a link to the QI article:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2024/01/11/think-thoughts/

John Maynard Keynes died in 1946. The earliest attribution to Keynes I
have found appeared in the journal "Synthese" in 1982 within an
article titled "How to Study Human Consciousness Empirically" by U.S.
philosopher Daniel Dennett.

[ref] 1982 November, Synthese: An International Journal for
Epistemology, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Volume 53, Number
2, Article: How to Study Human Consciousness Empirically Or Nothing
Comes To Mind, Author: Daniel C. Dennett, Start Page 159, Quote Page
176, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland. (JSTOR) link
[/ref]

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20115795

[Begin excerpt]
John Maynard Keynes was once asked whether he thought in words or
pictures. His reply, which the heterophenomenologist applauds, was "I
think in thoughts".
[End excerpt]

The accompanying footnote indicated that Dennett heard the anecdote
from a prominent British historian of ideas:

[Begin excerpt]
Reported to me by Isaiah Berlin, in conversation.
[End excerpt]

I have not yet found any direct evidence that Keynes made the remark
under examination. Instead, the story was relayed from Isaiah Berlin
to Daniel Dennett. A 1994 citation from Berlin which is presented in
the QI article indicated that Berlin's knowledge was indirect. He did
not hear the comment directly from Keynes. Hence, the support for the
attribution to Keynes is weak.

The notion that humans might "think in thoughts" instead of words has
a long history. The famous U.S. novelist Herman Melville published a
semi-autobiographical work titled "White Jacket or, The World In a
Man-of-War" in 1850. During one scene the captain of a ship
contemplated forcing crew members to shave their beards. Melville
presented the interior monologue of the captain, but this passage was
followed by a fascinating comment about the  accuracy of such
depictions:

[ref] 1853 (First published in 1850), White Jacket or, The World In a
Man-of-War by Herman Melville, Volume 2 of 2, Chapter 85: The Great
Massacre of the Beards, Quote Page 243, Richard Bentley, London.
(Google Books Full View) link [/ref]

https://books.google.com/books?id=GFYb5NsNTGQC&q=mooted#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
There is no knowing, indeed, whether these were the very words in
which the Captain meditated that night; for it is yet a mooted point
among metaphysicians, whether we think in words or whether we think in
thoughts. But something like the above must have been the Captain’s
cogitations.
[End excerpt]

Earlier pertinent citations and feedback welcome
Garson

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